Pakistan did not join the project, stating that it was working on its own satellite,[9] but did offer "monetary and technical support". India rejected Pakistani offers, saying that it wanted the project to be a "gift" and multi-national collaboration would be time consuming.[10] As a result, Pakistan declined to participate in the project.[11]Afghanistan was initially non-committal to the satellite.[12]

The South Asia Satellite provides crucial information on tele-medicine, tele-education, banking and television broadcasting opportunities. It is also equipped with remote sensing state of the art technology which enables collection of real-time weather data and helps in observations of the geology of the South Asian nations.[13]

One month after sworn in as Prime Minister of India, in June 2014 Modi asked ISRO to develop a SAARC satellite, which can be dedicated as a ‘gift’ to the neighbours. He asked the scientists to work on a satellite that would provide a full range of applications and services to all of India’s neighbours.[17][18] Modi said, "There is a lot of poverty in the SAARC nations and we need scientific solutions for this".[7]

In his address to the Sri Lankan Parliament in March 2015, Narendra Modi said "Sri Lanka will take full benefit of India's satellite for the SAARC Region. This should be in Space by December 2016".[17]

Pakistan initially declared that it was "keen" to participate on the project, offering monetary and technical support.[10] However, Pakistan said it did not because "India was not willing to develop the project on a collaborative basis."[11] Pakistan also stated it was working on its own satellite under its existing space commitments, thus declined to join the project.[9] The Indian government declined Pakistani offers of technical and monetary help because it wanted the project to be an Indian "gift" and did not want to make it into a "SAARC project", and that collaborations with Pakistan would have taken some time.[10] Earlier on 27 June 2015, ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar had announced that India and Pakistan would collaborate on developing the SAARC satellite with SUPARCO performing technical engineering under ISRO's guidance.[21]

During the 70th UN meeting in New York City held on 20 September 2015, officials from India and Pakistan debated over the ownership and control of the satellite.[22] On 2 October 2015, India announced that it had decided to go ahead with building the satellite, without Pakistan's consent.[22] On 23 March 2016, Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India said "Pakistan has decided to opt-out of the satellite project. So it cannot be called a SAARC satellite. It will be a South Asia satellite."[23]

There were some reports that Pakistan had security concerns, especially regarding espionage.[24] However, the Pakistani foreign ministry said these reports were "unfounded".[11]

Bhutan

In November 2018, Bhutan announced that its ground station infrastructure development work is nearly complete and that it is on track to begin using South Asia Satellite by the end of November 2018. Planned utilisation of allotted Ku-band transponder includes connecting three off-grid blocks in remote areas of the country, national TV broadcast, emergency communications and backup for domestic/international voice connectivity.[27]

Development

In November 2015, ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar stated that the satellite could be launched within 18 months of receiving approval from the SAARC member nations.[13][28] It was proposed to build a satellite for the SAARC region with 12 Ku-band transponders (36 MHz each)[25] and launch it with the Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk-II. The cost of the satellite was estimated to be about ₹235 crore (US$33 million), and the total cost including operational costs and insurance comes to ₹450 crore (US$63 million).[29] The cost associated with the launch was met by the Government of India.

The satellite will enable a full range of applications and services in the areas of telecommunication and broadcasting applications viz television (TV), direct-to-home (DTH), very small aperture terminals (VSATs), tele-education, tele-medicine and disaster management support. It will provide communication channels for better coordination during disaster management, and will help countries in mapping terrain and natural resources.[30]

Satellite and payloads

GSAT-9 carries 12 Ku band transponders; each participating South Asian Country has access to a dedicated transponder for their communications.[31]

The standalone satellite has a liftoff mass of about 2,230 kg.[31] GSAT-9 is the first Indian satellite to use electric propulsion albeit partially. It carries only 25% of the normal chemical fuel package compared to other Indian satellites, a xenon based electric propulsion system is used for orbital functions of the spacecraft. GSAT-20 is expected to be the first fully electric propulsion system enabled satellite.[32][33]

Launches are separated by dashes ( – ), payloads by dots ( · ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). CubeSats are smaller.Manned flights are bolded. Launch failures are in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in brackets).